Panama Wants to Become an Oil Producer

2012-01-06

For nearly 50 years, Panama’s government has been exploring for underground oil and natural gas deposits, showing its desire to be an oil-producing nation. There have been a total of 36 exploratory wells drilled. After a preliminary geological survey and exploration, the research report from a Venezuelan company, OTS Latinamerica, indicates that the Garachine-Sambu basin under the Pacific Ocean, offshore to the Darien province of the eastern Panama, and the Bayano-Chucunaque-Atrato basin have an estimated 900 million barrels of oil or gas deposits, with 15-to-20-years worth of exploitation that creates 15 billion U. S. dollars worth of economic benefits. Panama’s government plans to divide the areas bordering Columbia into eight blocks for international bidding for field exploration and underground energy exploitation: four blocks on waters of the Pacific coast, and four blocks within the land territory.